The Bystander Effect

The Bystander Effect

The Bystander Effect takes place when you have many people witnessing an emergency or crisis event and assume that since so many people are around, someone else will handle the situation.
The psychologists behind the bystander effect are Bibb Latané and John Darley, famous for their theory on what happened to Kitty Genovese when she was stabbed to death in a very public space and received no help from anyone.
Amina MWRC wanted to illustrate one way in which we can help people who are being subjected to hate crime. As an organisation we hear too often about the women we work with being harassed in public spaces, experiencing sexist, racist and Islamophobic abuse. We believe that if we all intervene to stop abuses from taking place in society (without putting ourselves at risk of getting hurt), we create a culture which promotes a sense of community, of justice and peace.
Albert Einstein said: “The world will not be destroyed by those who do evil, but by those who watch them without doing ANYTHING.”
A very small minority wanted to establish today as a day of hate and evil. As a society, we did not allow this to happen. As long as communities stand with each other and know that we have friends and allies in each other, people who promote an agenda of hate will be silenced. Let’s not by bystanders.

We would like to thank Padam Singh who supported Amina MWRC in getting this message of ‘bystander intervention’ by creating this illustration for us.